by Deva Fagan
ages: 11+
First sentence: “My parents always told me I was special.”
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Trix is a 15-year-old orphan girl  stuck as a scholarship student at the boarding school from hell. She’s resigned to spending the rest of her education there, hoping that a gymnastics scholarship will get her something different. Then she gets kicked off the team (for something she didn’t do), so the next best thing? Running away and joining the circus.

Except the Circus Galacticus is no ordinary circus.

It’s actually a spaceship, part of a galactic rebellion called the Tinkers that are working against both the government as well as the Mandate. It’s all a bit too complicated to go into here (and, to be honest, I’m not sure I got it all), but the basic gist is this: the Tinkers are okay with genetic mutation (like blue skin or turning into a porcupine boy or a questionable relationship with gravity) where as the government and the Mandate want to stamp them out. (It’s all very X-Men crossed with Star Wars.)

Trix is very unsure about how she fits into this universe: after all, she’s just a girl from earth who happens to have a bit of a meteorite that her parents left her. Except there’s this mandate thug out to get her. And weird things seem to be happening. And so, she settles in for the ride of her life, making new friends, enemies, and frenemies in this community of outcasts.

This was a quick, fun read. Nothing spectacular — though one has to admit that the idea of a flying circus tent is pretty cool, especially when it turns out that the flying circus tent is actually a somewhat sentient being — but nothing mundane either. Fagan does have a tendency to use the word ass (a lot!), which was kind of jarring (Really? Butt wouldn’t work?) in a middle grade book, but other than that, it was good, clean fun.

And, to be fair, I’m kind of getting tired of middle grade fantasy series, so to have one that works just fine as a stand alone is quite refreshing. (Please don’t write a sequel!)

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)